Infection Infection in neck - possibly from a bite

arod18007 · Nov 8, 2013

Hello all,

I just wanted to post this to see if anyone else has gone through something similar. On Wednesday I noticed that Eevee had a very hard lump on her neck/throat area. However, she was doing fine - eating, drinking, pooing, peeing, etc. I monitored her closely and saw that after it wasn't going away I decided to take her to a vet. I found an exotic vet, one that specializes in birds and pocket pets, and took Eevee in this evening. The vet used a needle/syringe to see what was in the lump and pulled out a lot of pus (super gross). The vet said it was likely an infection from a bite. This does make sense, because lately Eevee and Buttercup have been rumble strutting a lot around each other and I even noticed a tiny scratch on Buttercup's nose - they must be fighting. The vet prescribed antibiotics which I have to get her twice daily orally. Eevee has a return check up in two weeks to see how she's doing on the antibiotics.

Also, the vet said to house Eevee separately for at least a week. Since we brought her home she has not come out of her cozy and hasn't eaten or drank anything. I'm a little worried but I think it might just be because of the stress of the vet visit. I'll see how she is in the morning - I am leaving her a plate with bell peppers over night to see if she touches it.

Has anyone gone through something similar? Any advice on how to make it better for Eevee during this time would be great.

Thanks!

MochaAndMoo · Nov 9, 2013

Also, the vet said to house Eevee separately for at least a week. Since we brought her home she has not come out of her cozy and hasn't eaten or drank anything. I'm a little worried but I think it might just be because of the stress of the vet visit. I'll see how she is in the morning - I am leaving her a plate with bell peppers over night to see if she touches it.

If she isn't eating a few hours after the vet visit, I'd start force feeding her through a syringe. Guinea pigs need food constantly moving through their digestive system.
If you don't have any formulated food (Like Critical Care) on hand, you can always grind some pellets and mix it with water to make a paste. She will need around 50-60cc of the pellet mix split into around 5-6 feedings.
To avoid future fights, I suggest you expand your current cage.
Hoping Miss Eevee makes a speedy recovery. (Love the pokemon themed name by the way).

pinky · Nov 9, 2013

Did your vet rule out cervical lymphadenitis?

bpatters · Nov 9, 2013

Ditto @pinky.

Also, is this an exotic vet? Usually, if there's an infected lump, the vet will lance it and leave it open so you can flush it and let it heal from the inside out. Enclosed abscesses in guinea pigs don't usually clear up, even with antibiotics, because the pus is so thick and cheesy.

arod18007 · Nov 9, 2013

MochaAndMoo said:
If she isn't eating a few hours after the vet visit, I'd start force feeding her through a syringe. Guinea pigs need food constantly moving through their digestive system.
If you don't have any formulated food (Like Critical Care) on hand, you can always grind some pellets and mix it with water to make a paste. She will need around 50-60cc of the pellet mix split into around 5-6 feedings.
To avoid future fights, I suggest you expand your current cage.
Hoping Miss Eevee makes a speedy recovery. (Love the pokemon themed name by the way).

Thank you for all the info! Luckily, Eevee has been eating and doing well. This morning all the veggies were gone and she has already eaten most of her pellets. And yes, I have expanded the cage, which will hopefully help! Haha and yeah, she does look like the pokemon Eevee. Thanks for all the advice.

GuineaPigster · Nov 9, 2013

arod18007 said:
Thank you for all the info! Luckily, Eevee has been eating and doing well. This morning all the veggies were gone and she has already eaten most of her pellets. And yes, I have expanded the cage, which will hopefully help! Haha and yeah, she does look like the pokemon Eevee. Thanks for all the advice.

That is fabulous!
Keep them separated a while longer, though.

arod18007 · Nov 9, 2013

bpatters said:
Ditto @pinky .

Also, is this an exotic vet? Usually, if there's an infected lump, the vet will lance it and leave it open so you can flush it and let it heal from the inside out. Enclosed abscesses in guinea pigs don't usually clear up, even with antibiotics, because the pus is so thick and cheesy.

She is an exotic vet. They are Academy Pet Hospital in Albuquerque, NM in case you want to look at their site. She didn't leave it open but she did say she got all the pus out (she did mention that GP pus is thick and cheesy, unlike cats and dogs which is more liquid) and to put her on antibiotics. I do have a follow up so when I go back, if it's not better, I'll mention all this to her as well and possibly ask why it wasn't mentioned in the initial visit.

Thanks all.

BTW - can anyone tell me how I can quote more than one person in one response, that way I don't have to put a post for each person I quote?

RodentsRus · Nov 9, 2013

How is she doing now? Hopeful all better

arod18007 · Nov 9, 2013

RodentsRus said:
I'm not an expert but could it be that she is not eat becuse she misses her cage mate.. I know when one of my girls died the other stopped eat or drink also.. Maybe give her more antention..

I think that might have played into it. She is eating now but she does look kind of sad. I've been giving her extra love and I'm glad it's the weekend so I can spend more time with her. Thank you for the advice!

GuineaPigster · Nov 9, 2013

arod18007 said:
I think that might have played into it. She is eating now but she does look kind of sad. I've been giving her extra love and I'm glad it's the weekend so I can spend more time with her. Thank you for the advice!

You use the quotation marks. Click the marks on any post you want to quote, then once you've quoted them all, click Reply to Quote.

arod18007 · Nov 9, 2013

RodentsRus said:
How is she doing now? Hopeful all better

Yes, she is much better! Eating, drinking. But she still hasn't come out as much. I'm gonna be giving her extra love.

GuineaPigster said:
You use the quotation marks. Click the marks on any post you want to quote, then once you've quoted them all, click Reply to Quote.

Ah! Thank you so much! I would never have figured it out. I'm technologically challenged at times haha.

GuineaPigster said:
That is fabulous!
Keep them separated a while longer, though.

Indeed, the vet said for at least one week so I'll be doing that.

foggycreekcavy · Nov 9, 2013

What's the vet's reasoning for separating her? I'm not a fan of separating a pig, since it can be hard to get them back together again. Many a time someone has separated a pair only to have them fight like crazy when re-introduced.

If it's a contagious thing, the other pig has already been exposed.

It's much better to just put a grid divider in the cage. That way they can still "be with" each other, but you can monitor the eating and drinking, and the manure and urine output.

arod18007 · Nov 9, 2013

She said because of the fighting, which makes sense. When I reintroduce them I'm going to do it like for the first time over again - neutral setting and putting them back in a cleaned out cage. However, I was thinking of doing the divider. I might do that sooner than the week is up and after the week taking the divider out.

foggycreekcavy · Nov 10, 2013

How big is your expanded cage?

arod18007 · Nov 10, 2013

foggycreekcavy said:
How big is your expanded cage?

2X6. Why?

foggycreekcavy · Nov 15, 2013

Because sometimes pigs need more room than people think. A 2x6 should be great for a pair of pigs with troubles getting along.

arod18007 · Nov 15, 2013

foggycreekcavy said:
Because sometimes pigs need more room than people think. A 2x6 should be great for a pair of pigs with troubles getting along.

Yeah, I went off the guidelines on this website so I figured it'd be enough. There hasn't been any fighting since we've put Eevee back and she's doing much better now.

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